According to USA Basketball the World Select Team today was announced for the 2011 Nike Hoop Summit, the premier annual basketball game featuring many of the world's leading basketball players aged 19-years-old or younger, which will take place on Saturday, April 9 (7 p.m. PDT tipoff) at the Rose Garden, in Portland, Oregon. The game, which sees America's top senior high school players take on a World Select Team consisting of many of the world's top players, has been staged on 13 previous occasions and has given an extraordinary number of talented youngsters the chance to showcase their abilities. More than 100 Nike Hoop Summit alumni have been drafted into the NBA.
Having secured their first victory in 11 years in the series in 2009, in front of a Nike Hoop Summit record crowd of 11,246 and a national television audience, the World Team lost narrowly to the USA 101-97 in 2010. This year's version promises to be just as memorable as the last two encounters, with the World Select announcing a nine-man roster filled with a great deal of experience in international basketball. Additions are expected to be made to the World roster before the game. The 2011 World roster for the first time includes a player based in Portland, the venue for the game. Kyle Wiltjer, a 6'9" forward from the Jesuit High School will also represent his home nation Canada at the Nike Hoop Summit.
Along with Wiltjer, the other forward positions are taken by croatian Dario Saric ('94, 6'9", KK Zagreb) and latvian Davis Bertans ('92, 6'7", Union Olimpija), at the pic. The team also features four guards -polish Mateusz Ponitka ('93, 6'5", Tempcold AZS), canadian Kevin Pangos (6'1", Dr Denison H.S., Ontario), french Evan Fournier ('92, 6'6", Union Poitiers) and Raul Neto (6'2", Pitagoras/Minas and Brazil). The global squad is currently rounded off with centers brazilian Lucas Nogueira ('92, 7'0", Estudiantes) and polish Przemyslaw Karnowski ('93, 7'0", SMS PZKosz). Wiltjer starred at the FIBA Americas U18 Championship in San Antonio, Texas, last year where he helped Canada to a bronze medal and was named to the All-Tournament second team after averaging 19.4 points and 6.0 rebounds a game, while shooting 62.1 percent from the field. His father Greg was a second round draft pick of the Chicago Bulls in 1984, the year in which he also played for Canada in the Los Angeles Olympics, and Greg eventually went on to win a European title with FC Barcelona. Kyle, meanwhile, has recently committed to play college basketball at the University of Kentucky having led his high school to an unprecedented third straight Oregon state high school championship.
Photo: FIBA Europe
